Aug 19, Kabul:The recent political spat and reported assult of provincial council member Asef Mohamand has raised serious questions on the rising ethnic intolerance in Afghanistan.

The governor of the Balkh region, Atta Mohammad Noor, although denies the accusations by provincial council member Asef Mohmand that him and his sons abducted him from the Mazar-i-Sharif airport and then assaulted him.

Mohmand told reporters one of Noor's son bit off part of his ear during the beating.A spokesman for Noor called Mohmand's story a "pure lie".The claims come as Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum remains in Turkey amid unresolved accusations that he ordered his men to abduct, beat, and rape a political rival last year.

Meanwhile the HIA Member and renowned Afghan politician Gul Rahman Hamdard at a press conference in Mazar-i-Sharif stated that the accusations show brutality against ethnic minorities at a time when the nation should unite as a nation. "This is the age of negotiaions,conversation and the age of communication," he said ,while pointing that the governor is backing racial discrimination. " this kind of racial discrimination is very dangerous as it destroys our unity as a nation,
" he said.

Hamdard has called on the government of Afghanistan, human rights organizations and the internationalcommunity to take these accusations seriously as such atrocity encourages racial and ethnic discrimination in Northen Afghanistan. " These inhumane acts of brutality by the Governor are intolerable as he is trying to segregate the nation in the name of ethnicity," said the MP, before adding that Noor has by ruling the region with an iron fist.

These accusations come at a time when President Ashraf Ghani's government is struggling in bringing the fractious political arena that includes former warlords with armed followers into peace negotiations.